In February, on the ancient road from Jinyang to Pingyao, a team came meanderingly.
At this time, the winter in the North has not completely passed, and the north wind is still raging in the sky, blowing the flags in the team and making loud noises. People are also shrinking their hands and feet, trying to keep themselves warm.
This team is very bloated, with a long series of pack cars and pack horses, followed by a large group of cattle and sheep. Around the team, groups of soldiers are guarding the team, shouting and neighing loudly.
miscellaneous.
Obviously, this is a team transporting grain.
Spring has begun, the ice and snow are gradually melting, and although the weather is still very cold, it has become much warmer compared to the depth of winter, and the number of grain teams coming from the north is increasing day by day.
Along the way from the three counties of Daizhou to Jiangjun, there were countless such teams.
The south is still fighting, but the north has almost completely settled down, and these grain teams have brought a lot of benefits to the counties, villages and towns along the way.
Brothels and brothels were the most direct beneficiaries, and the most basic businesses such as restaurants, tea shops, and grain shops gradually emerged, restoring some vitality to these war-torn places.
Not many people care about how real or fake this prosperity is. Ordinary people only know that a stable life is approaching them.
Pingyao County undoubtedly benefited a lot from the teams transporting grain, grass and baggage, and the desolate scene soon became a thing of the past.
Pingyao County can now be said to be the county with the largest number of Fu soldiers in Bingzhou. Tens of thousands of Tang soldiers have settled here, and most of them are Jin people.
There are also some refugees from Luliang Mountain. Some heard that the war was over and returned to their hometowns in a hurry, while others were caught by officers and soldiers and sent to Pingyao County.
Others came from Jinyang. Their enthusiasm for the land, mountains and forests was higher than that of other types of people. Once they arrived, they occupied a lot of fertile fields and forests, and by the way, they also made the poor county warehouses rich.
Some savings also slightly eased the food pressure in Pingyao County.
Last year, Zhang Yunzhi, the governor of Xihe County, issued many decrees after taking office, re-registering household registrations, distributing acres of land, and strictly ordered each county to plow the land immediately after distributing acres of land for farming in the coming year.
At the same time, people also have to be summoned to build villages, houses, repair cities, ditches, etc. It can be said that the entire Xihe County was busy in the second half of last year.
From the end of Daye to the present, which part of Jin has been hit hardest, it must be Daizhou. As a border area, under internal and external difficulties, in the end, Daizhou only had more than one-third of its population of more than one million at its peak.
After a while, the people of Youzhou moved in and the situation was slightly relieved.
However, for a long period of time, Mayi, Yanmen and other places will not change the social structure of more boys and girls, and the long period of time mentioned here is calculated in units of ten years.
In addition to the three counties of Daizhou, Xihe County was most affected by taxes, labor, and war. Located behind Bingzhou, it was not hurt by foreign enemies, but by civil war.
Not to mention the various exorbitant taxes and endless labor during the Daye period, the war between Li Po and Li Tang and the banditry in the late Sui Dynasty. Xihe County was almost empty with ten houses and nine empty houses, which was not much better than the three counties of Daizhou.
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Perhaps the only thing that is much stronger than Daizhou is that it has a lot of fertile farmland, no shortage of water sources, and richer mountain forest resources, which allows more refugees to survive. And if he recovers, he will be better than Daizhou.
Daizhou is also much faster.
Taking Pingyao County as an example, the population has increased significantly in just over half a year.
The refugees came here with their families and began to work hard. The captured Tang soldiers gradually settled down and were busy building new homes here. By the end of autumn last year, many people sent letters to their wives, children and children at home, asking them to
Come and live in Pingyao.
By February of this year, Pingyao County had basically formed a population structure dominated by Fubing families, supplemented by other people of all kinds.
The county governor Zhang Yunzhi finally relaxed a little and began to carefully build his county governor's mansion according to the method of merging two states.
To say that the appeal of Xihe County is relatively large, it is actually not difficult to improve the composition of officials at all levels, restore the official position system and legal constraints.
Zhang Yunzhi still has a lot to do in the next year. The first is spring plowing, and then he will make great efforts to continue to suppress bandits.
Zhang Yunzhi is very young and has many bright spots in his talents.
But in the position of the governor of Xihe County, he performed very competently. Obviously, he benefited a lot from his political experience in Lou Fan, and he was very clear about the political intentions of the general manager's office.
Therefore, almost all of his energy was focused on restoring people's livelihood, and it was easy to achieve good political achievements by painting on a blank piece of paper.
Therefore, at the beginning of the year, he received the praise of the Governor's Office. What made Zhang Yunzhi ecstatic was that he could vaguely conclude that when the king became king, he, the prefect of Xihe County, was likely to have a title.
This will make him more prominent among the young children of the Zhang family in Jinyang. The generous rewards made Zhang Yunzhi write a long letter to the governor's office. In addition to expressing his loyalty and gratitude, he also added
He read some of his plans for Xihe County, and his excitement could be said to be vivid on the page.
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The person who greeted this grain transport team was the new Pingyao County Magistrate Liu Chaozong. Only a few days after taking office, this magistrate was wilted and still far from regaining his splendor as a descendant of the Liu family in Xiangyang.
He was also uncomfortable with the weather in the north. It had already been spring for a long time, but it was still so cold. He doubted whether he would be able to see the mountains and rivers of his hometown if he stayed here for a few more years.
With a group of county government officials, he stared longingly into the distance, dragging down the long team. At this time, he was weakly muttering to the chief clerk, "All the houses in the county town should be repaired. According to the
...As usual, how many people can be recruited?"
Hearing this, the chief secretary wrapped his official robe tightly and tried his best to look "innocent", "The county gentleman...according to the convention, Xihe County will be free of money and food for three years. It's less than one year, how can we let the people serve?"
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Liu Chaozong was obviously stunned, but he was considered the most senior magistrate in Xihe County. Even though he had only been in office for a few days, he already knew a lot of things. He then asked, "Then... I
Why did you hear that the county governor's office imposed a lot of labor last year?"
The chief clerk smiled bitterly and replied: "It's all done voluntarily by the people, and those government soldiers contribute the most, and there are not many government soldiers in the county."
Liu Chaozong understood this kind of exploiting loopholes as soon as he heard it, "Then can we also persuade the people to do some work voluntarily?"
The chief clerk looked at the new Shangguan'er and felt that his head was dangling on his neck. It might fall off in a few days. Then could he compete for the position of county magistrate?
The chief clerk yyed, but still answered honestly, "This matter must be ordered by the prefect's office. If the county magistrate wants to do it without permission, I'm afraid it will be inappropriate."
Liu Chaozong turned his head and glanced at the chief clerk for a few times. His eyes were not sharp, and he did not have the ability to read people's hearts. But after all, he was a guy who had eaten human flesh. The look at the chief clerk made him feel very uncomfortable.
Liu Chaozong was silent for a long time, thinking that the chief clerk was not a cunning person, and what he said did not seem to be lying to him. Of course, he had also heard some about the chief clerk's origins.
This Mr. Zhao, who is in his early forties, is from Jinyang and has no family background. When the Bingdai army went south to Jinyang, he followed Li Yuanji to Jiangjun. When Li Shentong was defeated in the battle, Mr. Zhao quickly
So he returned to Pingyao and took up his post. His official position remained unchanged, but he also escaped a war.
He is a very smart person. A few years ago, Liu Chaozong would have been very happy that his chief clerk was such a person, but now, he is a little down on energy.
All his energy and energy seemed to have been spent on assassinating Zhu Can and escaping all the way. Now that he has arrived in Pingyao, he feels like a dream from another life has been accompanying him.
Therefore, he quickly lost interest in guessing how true or false the chief registrar's words were, whether he really wanted to advise him, or whether he just wanted to stop him from doing anything and give him, the new superior officer, a blow.
Since he couldn't conscript, then forget it. Originally, the Pingyao County government office was in a state of dilapidation, and he wanted to repair it on the way.
Watching the team in front getting closer and closer, Liu Chaozong asked again: "Did Lieutenant Wu take people out to suppress the bandits again?"
"Yes, I heard that there is another group of thieves in Xishan. The number is not large. I thought Wu County Lieutenant would just take some people out to see if they can make some achievements."
"Well, how many civilians are there among these people who transport food and grass?"
The chief clerk was a little confused by his transfer, so he could only follow his words and said: "The county magistrate doesn't know that there are no civilian husbands and carriage drivers here, they are all served by soldiers. The county magistrate has just come here not long ago, so the lower official still... depends on the truth.
Let me tell you... I heard that Daizhou in the north has not collected taxes or levied labor for three years, and this is the fourth year... I should be able to see it more clearly, don't you think?"
Well, starting from the Daye period, large-scale labor conscription has gradually become the norm, and all officials who served in the late Sui Dynasty also regarded this as a normal thing.
Labor service is indeed very useful. Officials felt that people in the slack season had nothing to do, so it was better to recruit them to do other things. Although this was the most important reason for the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the officials actually did not learn too many lessons.
Or, to be more precise, we haven't had time to gain any experience or lessons from it.
This is the case for Liu Chaozong. After hearing this, he was a little surprised and more interested. He really wanted to go to Daizhou to see what Daizhou was like without having to collect labor. The county government should probably be the same as Pingyao.
Is it as dilapidated as here?
It's just that the people transporting food and grass are all soldiers? Things seem to be a little difficult to handle. Of course, there are some conveniences...